Lost in the Abyss
by SnowSasha
Summary: "Enjoy the little things in life for one day, you'll look back and realize they were the big things." Kurt Vonnegut... Sakura was always a weird child, always too mature and wise for her age and such, but "weird" was taken to another level when her parents died. She convinced herself that to be the strongest ninja. Years later she found herself questioning who was truly right.
1. Prologue

Prologue

\--

As usual, young Sakura's face was lit up with a wide grin. It seemed that wherever she went a bright, warm aura followed her. Her father, Kizashi, proudly held her hand and walked her around the village.

"Dad, look! Why is he so sad?" asked the small child. The child's finger was pointed at a small boy with his golden coloured hair sticking out messily.

"Stay away from him, Sakura. He's nothing but trouble." Kizashi whispered under his breath.

Sakura, who tended to reach out to everyone, puffed out her cheeks angrily. She stomped her feet and turned back to the lonely boy. Sakura could see a faint trail of tears on his cheeks. "He's crying, Dad," Sakura stated in a low voice. Kizashi looked his daughter in the eye only to shiver in fright, "I want to be his friend." Her voice had lowered into a dark, intimidating voice, one a five-year-old shouldn't be able to do.

Sakura always hid under her carefree facade, she wanted to hide her other side. A darker, more dangerous side. The side that told only the darkest truth in everything, her Inner self.

"G-Go ahead, Sakura... say hi..." Kizashi breathed out nervously. The petite pink haired girl smiled brightly and skipped over to the sulking boy.

"Hello, my name is Sakura Haruno! What's your name?"

Her two personalities scared her parents. And when they later saw a small seal on her neck they burst out crying. But when they searched for what type of seal it was, they turned pale.

It was an advanced seal for sealing demons. Better yet, for sealing dangerous, terrifyingly strong demons. Even worse, the seal was almost invisible signifying the fact the demon and their child had communicated.

Still, they tried to give their child a regular civilian life. They were going to make her become civilian, for the sake of her and the village.

\--

 _"Go home, immediately. There's trouble."_

Sakura paused and waved goodbye to Ino, her first friend. "I just remembered I need to go home!" was her excuse.

When she exited the compound Sakura bolted to her house. She ignored the other villagers looking at her questionably.

 _Why do I need to go home?_ Sakura asked her Inner, the nickname she had given the demon inside of her.

 _"Your parents are mere civilians, weak and cowardly."_ Sakura wished to glare at Inner but was too focused on running back home to focus on trivial matters. _"But they have enemies, ninja enemies. They have entered the house and are planning to kill your mother and father."_

Sakura found more energy and went faster than she had ever done before. At least without chakra. _Mom! Dad!_ Sakura could only wish that they had fended for themselves well enough to have given her more time.

Suddenly, she saw a hitai-ate. _"The person is a strong ninja! Ask him to help you!"_ Inner urged.

Sakura skidded to a stop and cried, "Someone broke into my home!" The ninja stiffened. He spun around and Sakura ran towards my home once more. Inner sent chakra into her legs forcing to go faster.

Sakura neared her house and saw the lock busted and the door wide open. A high pitched shriek was heard from inside. _Mom!_ Inner forced, even more, chakra into Sakura's legs as she ran inside the ninja hot on her trail. She could tell he didn't use chakra.

Sakura's house seemed larger than usual, it seemed like a maze. She felt a few tears slip from her eyes as she followed the ninja into the kitchen. Sakura could smell the metallic stench of blood.

As they entered the room Sakura froze. in front of her were three ninjas and two bodies. The Konoha ninja quickly... got rid... of the... the _trash_.

But in a flash around seven more shinobi appeared. One of gripped onto Sakura's shoulders and stabbed her thigh. She looked at her mother who was pinned on the wall. Blood seeped out of her stomach her eyes weakly moved to the pink haired girl.

She whispered six words to her child. Sakura felt her eyes well up.

The ninja behind Sakura stabbed my stomach and punched my nose, successfully breaking it. She let out a scream. Suddenly, five ANBU ninjas broke in and caught the enemies off guard. They defeated them but at the cost of fifteen lives and a child's childhood.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

\--

The Sandaime Hokage entered the small, bright room with sorrowful and a heavy heart. He thought back to how his ANBU entered his office stating that thirteen non-Konohagakure ninjas were killed and two civilian lives were lost. The death count surprised him, thirteen ninjas against two civilians, at the time he couldn't help but wonder why that many ninjas.

 _"A young girl, supposedly five and the two deceased civilians daughter was severely injured. After taking her to the hospital, Bird noticed a seal on her shoulder. She seems to be the container of a powerful demon."_

That answered his questions as to why so many ninjas attacked the civilian family.

 _"It seems the young girl has been communicating_ _with the demon for a while."_

That was one of his fears; if Danzo was to find this the girl might be put to death or banished. The Sandaime Hokage barely kept Naruto alive with the fact he was the Yondaime's legacy. But Sakura had no excuse in the eyes of the Council.

She was only _five._

"S-Sandaime H-Hokage!" a petite pink haired girl wrapped in bandages stuttered nervously. "G-Good... morning! Um... sorry I made a-a m-mess here... I-I was reading!"

The man observed the girl carefully, she was cleaning up several books scattered on her hospital bed. All of the books were about chakra and weaponry.

He then glanced around the room. There was no window or clock. The room was only furnished with a bed and a bedside table. There was no way she should be able to tell the time.

"How did you know what time of day it was? You have no windows and no clocks, which means that there is no way to tell time. It's also impossible for anyone to tell you because I am your only guest." He reasoned with growing suspicion.

"It's simple. There was a window in the door which let me see people outside the door. My door is near the reception so it is definitely in the busiest area of the hospital. Naturally, there should be many people passing by. Instead, there is barely anyone passing by. So, the time can't be afternoon because that would be the busiest time. Which leaves morning and night." Sakura sucked in a deep breath. "The floor still is shiny outside if I peeked out the window. If it were nighttime the shine should have worn away, it hasn't that's why it is morning."

Sarutobi nodded slowly seeing the logic in her reasoning. Suddenly, he thought about the fact that she did have logic to her reasoning. A five-year-old usually says, "I don't know!" but she didn't.

 _Advanced books... advanced knowledge... maturity..._

Only one word came to mind.

 ** _Prodigy_**

One week later, Sakura was released from the hospital.

 _"A miraculous recovery!"_ One nurse had exclaimed. Sakura could understand that part though.

A deep wound in the shoulder and another that hit her stomach. A severely broken nose and a concussion. It should have taken weeks, months even for it to heal. Sakura did it in one week. Thanks to Inner, they learned chakra control and healed themselves through the day.

Inner was also hurt, at least her seal. Inner was fixing that...

With her demon chakra, she continued to heal Sakura while she was asleep. This meant they were healing themselves roughly eighteen to twenty-four hours a day.

"Sakura Haruno, I shall accompany you to the Hokage Tower," an ANBU ninja mumbled as her brown ponytail seemed to fly into the air. _Obviously, a girl..._ Sakura nodded to the ninja and followed her.

The hospital wasn't that far from the Hokage tower. In fact, all they did was teleport from the hospital to here... even though it wasn't that far of a walk! But, it would be suspicious if a small girl was following an ANBU... so I'll make an exception.

Quickly Sakura ran to the Hokage's office. It wasn't that hard to find, all she did was find an open door and hear the words, "Good job."

As a chunin left the office Sakura came rushing in. The Hokage lifted his eyes forward and smiled. _Shouldn't scare the child. Even if she's special..._

"Hello, Sakura! What brings you here today?" his voice was itching with suspicion, she was released way too early than what she should have been.

"You called," she stated blankly as she flipped a lock of hair over her shoulder in annoyance.

Sarutobi's eyes widened in realization, "Oh yes, I did! How were you released early?" he tried to say it in an innocent voice.

The five-year-old's eyes narrowed, "Stop putting up that facade." Sakura never really despised liars but now that her parents died... she couldn't help but try to uphold the lessons they taught her.

So, Sarutobi put his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his hands. "Than I'll ask again," his voice was clear now, more intimidating and stronger. His eyes were narrowed, now she knew how he really felt and could approach the question accordingly. "I know about that demon of yours," Sakura nodded, "How exactly did you heal yourself?"

"I simply learned how to use medical ninjutsu and healed myself twelve hours a day. My demon is Inner, she healed her seal and me for twenty-four hours a day." I muttered cooly staring him directly in the eye. During my time studying I went over the rules of a shinobi.

 _Do not show emotion._

Instead of taking this as not showing any emotion I looked at it in another perpective. It was simply restating another rule.

 _Do not ever show your true intention._

That's why I'm acting differently. Because I have a question for him, I'll ask him soon. But I can't show my anxiety.

"Is that so? I will immediantly place you in an orph-"

"May I continue to live in my parents home?"

The question caught him off guard. "Do you not want to socialize with other kids?" he asked confused.

 ** _"That *ing orphanage kicked Naruto out! I will not go to that *ing *hole!"_** That's why I was anxious. I knew that I'd be asked to be placed there. Inner despised the orphanage and when she is questioned about her choices she takes over my body. I didn't want her to be rude in front of Hokage-sama...

There was a shocked silence, "Very well then." I took back control of my body and heaved a sigh.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," I bowed towards him and walked back to my home.

 _She was pinned to the wall and blood seeped out of the blonde's stomach. She whispered, "I-"_


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

\--

SAKURA P.O.V

When my parents died I didn't feel anything. I didn't know how to feel. I was shocked, what was I supposed to feel?

At the time, I knew I was supposed to feel sad. But after hearing my mother's last words all I felt was anger. Sure these men were dead but they were hired.

It was a mission for sure.

There were two mirrored objects that were like jagged lines in the hitai-ate. It's been a week since I left the hospital, I have had enough time to train and study.

Those ninjas belonged to Takigakure. Their village head most likely sent them to kill two innocents. Why? was my question. My parents didn't do anything wrong. They weren't drug dealers nor were they murderers. They never went to Takigakure and probably never heard of it.

So why did they kill two civilians if they posed no danger to them? Maybe they had a grudge against Konoha... but killing two civilians wouldn't have been as much of a big deal as killing many genins which is a bit stronger than a civilian.

No answer came to mind.

Another question came up. There were thirteen ninjas, one ninja could have easily killed four or five people. Why did they bring thirteen? They could have been searching for something, but they could have done it with three ninjas. My family was the only one targeted so the thirteen ninjas were specifically for my family. No one in my family posed that much of a big threat.

"I know about that demon of yours."

The words of the Hokage flashed through my mind. My demon... Inner!

Of course!

They were after her and were sent to kill Inner and I! How did I not see it before? They knew I had a demon and took extra precautions because they were a small country. Which meant I was the target, not my parents.

"Your parents died because of you," Inner snarled at me angrily. It was a broad statement but it was nonetheless true. My parents were killed because of my demon that was formed from my feelings of negativity and truth.

My parents died not realizing that they wouldn't die from the demon but from the attention it got.

D*mmit! It was all my fault!

Now the sadness kicked in, tears fell down my face. I indirectly killed my parents! I buried my face in my pillow. I sat up once again and looked at my shaking hands.

What have I done?

That night I made sure to always protect the people I love.

I can't afford to hurt anyone else...

[Three months later]

It's been three months since that incident. I figured that the only way to protect my friends was through being well respected and strong. I didn't want to become the Hokage, no. I would ruin Naruto's dream.

I would become an ANBU at the age of twelve. I would become well respected by then. That way no one would target my friends because they would know my name.

Of course, that would always lure in enemies but by then I should be strong enough to defeat them... hopefully.

I have read seven books about chakra control, weapon usage, and D and C rank jutsus. I read through a fairly basic exercise called Tree Climbing. All I had to do was cling to a tall vertical object and scale it without using my hands.

First... I need to pump chakra into my feet. I tried to pump it into my feet but I didn't know how. I tried to imagine a course of energy going to my feet but when I tried to walk up a tree I immediately fell.

" _Imagine that you are the chakra_ , _it's just chakra control,_ " Inner suggested. I glared at my feet, I couldn't believe I was taking advice from the demon who caused my family to die. But she was right... she always told the truth.

And so, I did as she instructed. I imagined myself traveling through my veins and imagined that I started staying on my feet. Keeping that image in my head I stepped on to the tree. I took another step, then another, then another.

My eyes burst open and ran upwards. I had the image in my head so I could successfully do this consistently. I burst through the leaves and felt the cool breeze hit my face. I panted, I felt tired for some reason.

" _Your chakra reserves are barely larger than a baby's!_ " Inner hissed. " _If you wanna become the strongest and most respected shinobi than you've gotta expand your chakra reserves!_."

My mind traveled back to a book about chakra. I believe it said that the most effective way to expand my chakra reserves was through wearing weights. But I remembered my mother saying that ankle weights would stunt my growth.

Carefully, I walked down the tree. Once I reached the ground I ran down the road to a nearby weapons shop.

As entered the weapons shop Inner screamed in my ear about how stupid I am.

"Hello, ojiisan!" I greeted the balding man with a smile. Unfortunately, I was a tad bit short so I had to go on my tippy-toes. My nose barely reached the counter.

"Uh... Hello there, Sakura, what are you doing here?"

"Well, can you give your favorite and only granddaughter weights to train?" I blinked innocently. My ojiisan blinked at me.

"Why?"

"Why not?"

My feet were getting tired but I still held an innocent smile and kept my gaze unbreakable. The old man scratched his head nervously.

"Don't you think you're a bit too... young?"

I scoffed, "You're eighty-three and you're running a busy shop. Don't you think you're a bit too... old?

"Age is just a number, kiddo! You can't be too young or too old for," suddenly he stopped, "anything..."

I grinned up at him as he sighed, "Alright, kiddo. But only increase the weights by a quarter of a pound a day. No more." He quickly placed five weights on the counter. "Two for your wrists, two for your shoulders, two for your legs, not ankles, and one for your waist. Each one is 0.6 pounds but the waist is 2 pounds. Each day I'll increase the weight so that every day 0.25 pounds is added to you."

I looked at him dumbfounded, "I know you have a Math major but seriously..." I muttered. He flashed me a smile and helped me fit the weights on.

"And because you are my daughters legacy I'll give you give kunai and three shurikens. Also... please have this shuriken pouch!" my grandfather literally threw ninja items onto me.

Told you, Inner!

 _"Cha! Shut up, Outer!"_

After an hour I finally left the shop. I don't mean to seem spoiled but at least I got ninja items without wasting the very few coins I have.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

\--

 **Sakura P.O.V**

"Suiton: Mizurappa! _(1)_ " I yelled as a large ket of water came out of my mouth through my hand. I finally did it! Sure it took me two and a half weeks but I successfully did seven B ranked jutsu in less than twenty minutes! And, as an unexpected bonus, I destroyed twenty-five trees!

I panted a bit, as I felt my muscles cramp up.

I'm now six and I have mastered all E, D, and C ranked Water, Earth, and Lightning type jutsus. I now completely mastered B ranked Water and Earth styles. The lightning style isn't my natural chakra type so it's much more difficult. It takes nearly a week to master a jutsu when it normally takes a day or two.

My weights now weigh 96.25 pounds. Then add an extra forty or so pounds and then I'm carrying 136.25 pounds, which is triple the number of pounds a six-year-old should carry. I have chakra reserves as large as an advanced chunin would have it.

Three months ago my ojiisan died. He was the only family I had left. I continued to have a transformed clone run the shop in his honour. I also kept on adding the same amount of weight he always put, once again, in his honour.

I couldn't save him because he lived a long, full life. He had a ghost of a smile on his face apparently. I can't deny that he died happily.

Tomorrow is the first day of the academy for me. I smiled up at the sky. I know there's an Entrance Exam, and I'm going to ace it.

\-- At Entrance Exams --

"Eh?! What does _'Diagram this sentence mean'_ "

"Shh, Naruto!" I scolded, "We both know that you know the answer! I taught you!"

"Oh yeah! Sorry!"

Ino snorted as several others muttered angrily.

I came to the last question and rolled my eyes, it was simple.

 _Line B is the greatest possible distance a shinobi can throw his shuriken from a tree of 7 meters. For enemies who appear within the circumference of the shuriken's range, explain his attack options. Show working._

Neatly writing the last answer I sighed. Obviously, the Nara's were far behind. I used chakra to speed up my writing because I wanted to visit my mother and fathers grave today.

I silently gave the paper to Iruka-sensei.

 _"Show-off..."_ someone whispered, I rolled my eyes.

"Head out that door, Mizuki-sensei will be there to give you your second exam," Iruka-sensei mumbled as he put down a flower circle. I smiled, glad to know that I got a perfect.

With that same smile on my face, I smugly walked out of the room. _I bet that arrogant Uchiha can't beat me!_ I thought about the encounter I had with the boy an hour ago.

 _"Hey watch_ _it!" I yelled at a boy angrily as he shoved me to the ground. The boy didn't throw back a single glance a kept on walking forward._ _"Not even a sorry?" I muttered angrily. I dusted myself off and glare at the Uchiha crest on his back and smirked to myself. "I happened to realize that Ugly... starts with U!"_

 _The boy paused and glared at me, "Hn."_

 _"It makes me laugh to see you try to fit your whole vocabulary into one sentence!"_

 _Once again he glared at me, this time he truly said **words**. "Why'd you dye your hair that ugly colour?"_

 _"It's natural! And I can always change it in a day, but you, unfortunately? Your IQ couldn't get any lower!"_

 _"Wel-"_

 _"Oh... My... Gosh! I just realized! It talks! Finally, after what seven years! You're pretty slow, Ducky!"_ _I joked with a smile on my face. My partner, on the other hand, wasn't having that much fun._

 _"Ducky...?"_

 _"Your hair looks like ducks *ss."_

 _His eyes widened._ _"Tch! Well... I- uh... you're ugly!"_ _He stammered._

 _"I could eat alphabet soup and throw up a smarter and much better insult than that!"_ _I giggled._

 _"Can you **please**_ _stop?!" the boy groaned in frustration._

 _"Only if you say sorry for shoving me to the ground and making my hand bleed," I had a ghost of a smile on my lips. Once again his eyes widened, but soon he glared at me again._

 _"No! I don't need to say sorry, it's never an Uchiha's fault! You're so annoying!" His cheeks were a tinted pink as he glared at me once more before running away._

Stupid Uchiha's and their eternal egos!

"Hi, Mizuki-sensei!"

"Uh... Hello Sakura!" he greeted as he looked down at his clipboard

I smiled innocently at the white-haired sensei. He returned a more relaxed smile.

"So... what do we have to do for the second exam?" I asked him. He raised an eyebrow.

"You're done with the first already?" he was obviously bewildered.

"Well... Duh!" I looked at him with a smile in my eyes. His eyes went wide and I grinned.

A soft breeze passed around us. Nothing but silence lied before us as he carefully observed me. Not breaking eye contact my grin widened.

Suddenly he clapped his hands, "Alright, _Sakura_... see those targets right there?" He crouched down and pointed to five targets. Each one getting farther away from us. The closest one was five meters and the last being around twenty-five.

I nodded. "For this test, you need to throw three kunai at each target," He explained in a carefree manner.

Once again I nodded confidently. If I hadn't learned the technique to properly throw a kunai... I would completely fail.

I picked up one kunai and twirled it around my small, chubby fingers. I threw it at the target confidently.

 _Clump._

In the centre was the kunai, I picked up two more and threw them. Once again, they made it to the centre of the target

I repeated the process perfectly the last four times and smirked.

 _"You're an attention-seeker, you know?"_ Inner surprised me. _"You're trying so hard to get all of the attention on you. Don't you know that that's dangerous?"_ Her blunt statement didn't surprise me.

 _If it means that my friends will be safe. I'm willing to take on any ninja._

 _"Sakura, that not what I-"_

"Sakura, congratulations. You finished the second exam. Uh... please go to the courtyard while you wait for the rest of the students," Mizuki smiled pleasantly. I shrugged as he showed me to the small area.

I suppressed a grunt, there were at least fifty kids in the first exam. This courtyard could possibly only hold twenty. Are they stupid?

 _Wait... we have to wait for everyone?_

 _"The last three questions would be difficult for most everyone. Also, that Shikamaru kid doesn't look like he would want to throw a kunai. He's the Nara heir so he must be the second to finish the first exam. All of the Nara's and Uchiha's will be finished in at most twenty minutes. Naruto, though he may seem stupid, will wake up from his nap and turn in his test. Ino and Hinata will also do the same. That would leave the others who will definitely finish seven minutes later."_

 _So?_

 _"We have thirty minutes to say hi to mom, dad, and ojiisan,_ " Inner grunted. I sighed as I realized she could have just said that.

\-- _Forty minutes later --_

"Alright," Iruka clapped, "everyone! We will be testing how well you do in battle. When I say scatter, you must hide. How well you do against Mizuki-sensei and me will become your score on your third exam. You may use any technique!" The children's eyes darted around the forest as they tried to find a hiding spot.

"Everyone ready? Your not? Scatter!" Kids stumbled to where they wanted to hide.

"Hey! This is my space!" I heard a kid whisper loudly. "Ami, out!"

"Whatever! Sasuke-kun!" the purple haired girl ran next to a well hidden Uchiha.

 _Fangirls..._ I didn't hide. No instead I made myself invisible and hid my chakra. Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei might sense me but because they won't expect an advanced academy student they will completely ignore me.

Suddenly, I heard two screams. Then three more after a few seconds. I saw Iruka and Mizuki cross out names and write a few notes.

 _Naruto... Ino... Hinata... I taught them how to hide their chakra. They should be fine._ About thirty minutes later, I saw Naruto run out of a bush and stand next to Hinata, who had just gotten out. Ino joined them nearly ten seconds later.

After that only one student came out. That was Sasuke.

 _"I bet you he's the last one."_

 _"Kya! Sasuke is so amazing and strong!"_

 _"You did so well, Sasuke!"_

"Where's that pink-haired girl?"

I silently laughed as everyone suddenly froze. Sasuke glared at the ground as everyone else tried to figure out where I was.

Iruka walked back to the courtyard. "Sakura, you can come out now!"

And so I quickly released the E ranked jutsu. I came out of a bush so that I wouldn't be mixed up with all of the other kids.

"Did I win?" I asked while giggling.

"Yeah... but we have to grade this exam based on everything, not your stealth skills," Mizuki said. All of a sudden he aimed a low sweep at me.

I quickly jumped and glared at the chunin. He then took out a kunai and threw it at me while I was in mid-air. To dodge it, I twisted my body gracefully as to both land on my feet and to not waste my energy.

Soon I was on the defensive side of the battle. It wasn't a good place to be, I wasn't initiating any of the movements and had no way of beating him on this side of me.

"Cha!" I punched the ground with a chakra infused fist. Everyone fell to the ground and as the ground shook and Although it wasn't that efficient, it was a good way to show-off my chakra control. My goal was to get Mizuki-sensei to use all of his strength and defeat him. An Academy student defeating a chunin would earn a few raised eyebrows, would it not?

Mizuki-sensei stumbled backwards his eyes wide with surprise. I took note of his lowered guard and attacked him. My fist was about to touch his cheek when suddenly he disappeared.

The other children were nowhere in sight and the crater I made had vanished. _Genjutsu._ I quickly brought my hands together into a tiger seal and yelled out, "Kai!"

Before I opened my eyes I did a backflip knowing that Mizuki-sensei would try to attack me. "Suikusari no Jutsu!(2)" I yelled out. Chains suddenly came out if my hands and wrapped around Mizuki-sensei's ankles and wrists.

The other students suddenly started cheering. Mizuki-sensei could barely take a single step.

"Good job, Sakura! You can release Mizuki-sensei now!" Iruka remarked clapping slowly. As soon as he said that I immediately released the jutsu.

Mizuki and Iruka-sensei quickly wrote something down on the clipboard and rushed us back into the classroom.

 **Suiton: Mizurappa(1) - Water Style: Water Trumpet**

 **Suikusari no Jutsu(2) - Water Chains Technique**


End file.
